Enrichment and detection of nucleic acids with ultra-high sensitivity

A method performed by a biosensor device for enriching biomarker molecules to facilitate ultra-sensitive detection and quantification of the biomarker molecules, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a biosensor device including an microarray of hydrophilic islands having sensing areas and surrounded by a hydrophobic structure, bio-molecular probes of at least one type for detecting molecules of a target biomarker to functionalize the sensing areas of the microarray of hydrophilic islands;
• receiving, over the functionalized sensing areas of the microarray of hydrophilic islands, droplets of a biomarker solution that includes the biomarker molecules to form droplets of the biomarker molecules that cover the sensing areas of the microarray of hydrophilic islands;
• allowing the biomarker solution to evaporate over the microarray of hydrophilic islands to concentrate the biomarker molecules onto the sensing areas of the microarray of hydrophilic islands;
• receiving, over the functionalized sensing areas of the microarray of hydrophilic islands containing the concentrated biomarker molecules, a liquid in a controlled time to form an array of self-assembled droplets to resuspend the concentrated biomarker molecules in the droplets over the functionalized sensing areas;
• receiving, over the array of self-assembled droplets of the biomarker solutions, a layer of water-immiscible-liquid to encapsulate the array of self-assembled droplets to form water-immiscible-liquid encapsulated reaction chambers for controlling a reaction between the target biomarker molecules and the bio-molecular probes;
• and
• allowing a reaction between the target biomarker molecules and the bio-molecular probes to form hybridized target biomarker molecules.